It's a Platform Play (Part II)

I have had the privilege of working with ERPs on a couple of different platforms.  The first ERP platform I worked with was SAP's NetWeaver platform.  As we implemented a series of SAP products on the NetWeaver platform we had tremendous success.  The applications built on this platform were built to work together.  We were able to simplify the IT architecture and lower the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).  We ended up with a very lean IT applications team because the skill set required to maintain all of the applications concentrated on a single platform.  I took a few years, but by the time we were done, all of the applications except the shop floor control system (MES - Manufacturing Execution System) were on the NetWeaver platform.  Everything was humming alone rather smoothly.

The road to get there was a challenge.  As an IT executive, my job was to convince the business to go along with my IT strategy.  I was able to do so by partnering with the CEO and the CFO.  Showing the benefits of a unified platform and proving the savings, helped me to gain the support for my platform strategy.

At the time, I was blamed for drinking the "SAP Kool-Aid".  But I was able to prove that the SAP Kool-Aid was actually good for you.  I was also labeled as an "SAP Only" guy.  That was not completely true.  I was actually and "SAP First" guy.  Once I had the support of the executive team, business folks who brought solutions to IT had to have a very good reason for deviating from the platform.  It was a challenge to say the least, but when business team members brought solutions to IT, we would explore the business need and look to see if there was an SAP solution for that need first.  Sometimes that meant enlisting our ABAP developers to build a solution on the NetWeaver platform.  As a result of enforcing this IT Strategy, our company had one of the best and leanest IT footprints in the world.  We were a billion dollar global high-tech manufacturing and distribution business on a single globlal instance of each enterprise application on a single global private cloud platform.  Life was good.

But that was 10 years ago.

Now companies are taking a serious look at the public cloud offerings.  The public cloud offers the low cost of a multi-tenant environment.  On a private cloud, companies' enterprise applications are hosted on a dedicated set of hardware and therefore the company bears the cost of all of the hardware and support.  In a public cloud, companies share the cost of the multi-tenant environment, therefore the costs are lower.  Public cloud companies such as Amazon, Google, and Salesforce are leading the way.  Amazon and Google started with the public in mind and offered their solutions to individuals first.  Salesforce started with enterprise applications (such as CRM) in mind.  Now companies such as Kenandy, FinancialForce, and Root Stock are offering ERP solutions on the Salesforce platform.

The public cloud offering has its share of limitations for enterprise applications, but companies are already reaping the benefits.  Originally the public cloud offerings targeted the SMB (Small and Medium sized Businesses), but now the first large company has successfully implemented the Kenandy ERP on the Force.com platform.  (See Dave McLain on the Consumer Goods Technology link. http://consumergoods.edgl.com/news/2015-Visionaries100268)

With the Force.com platform, applications built on the platform are built to work together and are perhaps even more tightly integrated than my experience with the NetWeaver platform.

The moral of the story is regardless of the platform you move to, the platform itself must be a driving force within your IT Strategy.  Enforcing the "Platform Application First" stance politically difficult, but it must become a way of life within your organization.  You must be able to prove that the functionality cannot be achieved on your platform before you allow an application deviation.  Without an enforceable platform strategy, your company will end up with a messy, complicated and expensive architecture that may eventually become unmanageable.  Unfortunately I have seen this in many organizations.

If your company needs help to develop and enforce a platform strategy, please reach out to me.  I now have experience in both private and public cloud platform strategies.